Thoughts on having a tire repair kit instead of a spare tire?

[Citysnaps]

My wife has been researching hybrid electric vehicles and has decided on a Honda CR-V hybrid.

Seems like a good choice. The upcoming 2023 model claims 43/36 city/highway MPG, has decent cargo space, is relatively quiet inside, and should be pretty reliable.

Doing a bit more research on my own I discovered that it doesn't come with a spare tire and instead includes a "tire repair kit" (aka a tire mobility kit) which combines an inflater, gauge, and sealant goop in one unit, and can be used for repairing small punctures when on the road.

That gave me pause. Think I'd much rather have a spare, even if it's of the compact limited speed/distance variety. I don't mind plugging flats (I have a professional quality plug kit at home) that I've used many times. But that's always been after bringing the flat tire back home in the car with the spare (full size or compact) mounted in its place.

I can think of situations where no spare and a tire repair kit when out driving, or on a road trip, could be pretty iffy. Years ago having a car with run-flats also made me a little nervous on extended trips.

My wife's second choice is a RAV 4 hybrid. I *think*, but need to verify it has some kind of spare.

Thoughts?

 

[DT]

I've been driving cars without a spare for years (that also don't use EMT/runflats), around town I don't mind all that much, but I do have a touch of concern on a longer road trip.

Our Tesla doesn't have one, but I keep a good quality plug kit and a compressor in the car (frunk ), but that assumes you can actually plug the hole, then it would fall back to some kind of roadside service (either Tesla, or AAA, etc.)

There's a company that makes super high quality spares:

Homepage

Your premier source for durable, lightweight spare tire kits engineered for your vehicle. Alloy wheels, rugged long-range tire- Search Year/Make/Model

modernspare.com

Not cheap, but might be well worth in a situation where you need to just get back on the road.

 

[Apple fanboy]

My wife has been researching hybrid electric vehicles and has decided on a Honda CR-V hybrid.

Seems like a good choice. The upcoming 2023 model claims 43/36 city/highway MPG, has decent cargo space, is relatively quiet inside, and should be pretty reliable.

Doing a bit more research on my own I discovered that it doesn't come with a spare tire and instead includes a "tire repair kit" (aka a tire mobility kit) which combines an inflater, gauge, and sealant goop in one unit, and can be used for repairing small punctures when on the road.

That gave me pause. Think I'd much rather have a spare, even if it's of the compact limited speed/distance variety. I don't mind plugging flats (I have a professional quality plug kit at home) that I've used many times. But that's always been after bringing the flat tire back home in the car with the spare (full size or compact) mounted in its place.

I can think of situations where no spare and a tire repair kit when out driving, or on a road trip, could be pretty iffy. Years ago having a car with run-flats also made me a little nervous on extended trips.

My wife's second choice is a RAV 4 hybrid. I *think*, but need to verify it has some kind of spare.

Thoughts?

I've been driving for 30 years and have only ever had two punctures I've had to deal with at the side of the road.

 

[quagmire]

You're going to be hard pressed to find spare tires in new cars today. Either it will be run flats or tire repair kits. All in the chase of that extra .1 MPG.

 

[Citysnaps]

Not cheap, but might be well worth in a situation where you need to just get back on the road.

Hmmm... that's an interesting option to consider. I just need something to get back home where I can plug the flat, or if hundreds of miles away, to a gas station to have the flat plugged. In fact, if in the local area, would probably not have it in the car.

Thanks!

 

[Herdfan]

You're going to be hard pressed to find spare tires in new cars today. Either it will be run flats or tire repair kits.

But there are different type of run-flats. There are those that have some sort of carcass inside the tire that will let you drive on it for long enough to get somewhere. And then there are the ones pre-filled with Slime or similar and are called self-sealing. Fine for a nail or small hole, but rip a big hole and you might as well have a regular tire.

My daughter's GLA has the latter and she was on a trip to UGA to visit a friend when she ran over something. Fortunately she was only about 10 miles outside of Athens when it happened and she was able to limp it to her friend's apartment. She only had to add air once. I put together a small emergency kit when she first started driving and one of the things in it was a 12V compressor. The next morning she had to pump it up again to get to the dealer who was the only place around that had her tire, and they had to take it off the display.

Otherwise, she would have been buying two tires because the tire store wouldn't put a single non-matching tire on.

So I think I would prefer a real spare or at least a real run-flat.

 

[Yoused]

I was on the road to the pass when I failed to avoid a loaf-of-bread-sized rock, resulting in actual damage to the wheel as well as the tire. I have a penchant for taking lesser roads, and while it was indeed a highway, the nearest place to get help was at least 20 miles away, if not more. Not having the donut spare would have seriously sucked.

 

[fischersd]

My wife has been researching hybrid electric vehicles and has decided on a Honda CR-V hybrid.

Seems like a good choice. The upcoming 2023 model claims 43/36 city/highway MPG, has decent cargo space, is relatively quiet inside, and should be pretty reliable.

Doing a bit more research on my own I discovered that it doesn't come with a spare tire and instead includes a "tire repair kit" (aka a tire mobility kit) which combines an inflater, gauge, and sealant goop in one unit, and can be used for repairing small punctures when on the road.

That gave me pause. Think I'd much rather have a spare, even if it's of the compact limited speed/distance variety. I don't mind plugging flats (I have a professional quality plug kit at home) that I've used many times. But that's always been after bringing the flat tire back home in the car with the spare (full size or compact) mounted in its place.

I can think of situations where no spare and a tire repair kit when out driving, or on a road trip, could be pretty iffy. Years ago having a car with run-flats also made me a little nervous on extended trips.

My wife's second choice is a RAV 4 hybrid. I *think*, but need to verify it has some kind of spare.

Thoughts?

Yes, the Rav4 Hybrid has a spare (and, I think you could fit a full sized tire in there if you wanted to swap it out) - I think the body style is the same since 2019 and people already verified that a full sized tire would fit in the well on those.

 

[Citysnaps]

Yes, the Rav4 Hybrid has a spare (and, I think you could fit a full sized tire in there if you wanted to swap it out) - I think the body style is the same since 2019 and people already verified that a full sized tire would fit in the well on those.

View attachment 18524

Thanks for the heads-up - appreciate it! If you happen to own a Rav 4 hybrid (looks like you do), can you tell me what you like and dislike about it?

 

[fischersd]

Thanks for the heads-up - appreciate it! If you happen to own a Rav 4 hybrid (looks like you do), can you tell me what you like and dislike about it?

Heh...dislike that the dealership had the maintenance reminder pop up 2k before the 3rd maintenance was due . Luckily found on YouTube how to reset that.
Also disliked that the default setting was to NOT have the interior lights come on when you open the door. Somehow, when I was in resetting the maintenance, I managed to toggle that setting *shrug* - so, now they do.

Love the Rav4. I had a Hyundai Tucson back in Onterrible as my "practical everyday" car - that thing was horrible for road noise. Hyundai's build quality doesn't hold a candle to Toyota! (I think Honda and Toyota are very comparable when it comes to build quality). I also had a BMW Z4 for sunny days *sigh*. Miss that car!
I can get up to 850km on a tank if I drive reasonably - the tank is 55l full (per Google, that's 528 miles and 14.5 gallons for you Yanks)

I have a seat cover in the back for the dog, but I've put the seat down and used the back for cargo a lot (often helping friends who either don't have cars or have compacts).

I also got the roof racks and the towing package (and the black wheels) as upgrades. I wanted the trailer hitch for a bike rack, mostly Still have to pick one up - but I'll have to research which is the best one.

Oh...if you DO get the towing package, that means you can't have the motion sensor to auto-open the back hatch - the hitch blocks it.

I also didn't bother with the electronics package - though I should have looked to see if it included wireless CarPlay (had that with the Alpine head unit I added to the Tucson)

Love the ride and the handling of it. I still drive every vehicle pretty hard as I enjoy driving, but still get pretty phenomenal mileage with this thing.

Oh! And, if you love stand up paddleboarding like we do - I've had an inflatable SUP for 4 years now. I picked one up for the wife. Both of our boards and everything that goes with it (paddles, vests, etc) fit easily in the cargo area, under the cover. AND as you're a hybrid, you can use your electric SUP pump to inflate both of them and never have to worry about killing your battery! (as your battery is HUGE (it's under the back seat).

I also kinda wonder if I shouldn't have gotten the Rav4 Prime - then you get the option of running up to 80km on pure electric (so, bigger battery). Maybe next time (they had a 3 year waiting list for the Prime when I bought mine last year).

 

[DT]

You're going to be hard pressed to find spare tires in new cars today. Either it will be run flats or tire repair kits. All in the chase of that extra .1 MPG.

Some full-er-ish sized SUVs have them, our previous DD/RT, full sized underneath - and the Wrangler (as everyone probably knows if you've seen one) has a full sized spare hanging right off the rear It's one reason we're probably going to drive it down to The Keys for our Xmas trip (vs. the Tesla). Having a spare you can access without having to unpack the entire vehicle on the side of the road is pretty nice.

 

[quagmire]

Some full-er-ish sized SUVs have them, our previous DD/RT, full sized underneath - and the Wrangler (as everyone probably knows if you've seen one) has a full sized spare hanging right off the rear It's one reason we're probably going to drive it down to The Keys for our Xmas trip (vs. the Tesla). Having a spare you can access without having to unpack the entire vehicle on the side of the road is pretty nice.

Yeah about the full sizers and the off road designed vehicles are about it.

The donuts are still there, but they are more the exceptions than the rule these days.

 

[Citysnaps]

Heh...dislike that the dealership had the maintenance reminder pop up 2k before the 3rd maintenance was due . Luckily found on YouTube how to reset that.
Also disliked that the default setting was to NOT have the interior lights come on when you open the door. Somehow, when I was in resetting the maintenance, I managed to toggle that setting *shrug* - so, now they do.

Love the Rav4. I had a Hyundai Tucson back in Onterrible as my "practical everyday" car - that thing was horrible for road noise. Hyundai's build quality doesn't hold a candle to Toyota! (I think Honda and Toyota are very comparable when it comes to build quality). I also had a BMW Z4 for sunny days *sigh*. Miss that car!
I can get up to 850km on a tank if I drive reasonably - the tank is 55l full (per Google, that's 528 miles and 14.5 gallons for you Yanks)

I have a seat cover in the back for the dog, but I've put the seat down and used the back for cargo a lot (often helping friends who either don't have cars or have compacts).

I also got the roof racks and the towing package (and the black wheels) as upgrades. I wanted the trailer hitch for a bike rack, mostly Still have to pick one up - but I'll have to research which is the best one.

Oh...if you DO get the towing package, that means you can't have the motion sensor to auto-open the back hatch - the hitch blocks it.

I also didn't bother with the electronics package - though I should have looked to see if it included wireless CarPlay (had that with the Alpine head unit I added to the Tucson)

Love the ride and the handling of it. I still drive every vehicle pretty hard as I enjoy driving, but still get pretty phenomenal mileage with this thing.

Oh! And, if you love stand up paddleboarding like we do - I've had an inflatable SUP for 4 years now. I picked one up for the wife. Both of our boards and everything that goes with it (paddles, vests, etc) fit easily in the cargo area, under the cover. AND as you're a hybrid, you can use your electric SUP pump to inflate both of them and never have to worry about killing your battery! (as your battery is HUGE (it's under the back seat).

I also kinda wonder if I shouldn't have gotten the Rav4 Prime - then you get the option of running up to 80km on pure electric (so, bigger battery). Maybe next time (they had a 3 year waiting list for the Prime when I bought mine last year).

Thanx! Looks like we should check one out.

 

[AG_PhamD]

Yeah, I’m not a big fan of most new cars forgoing the spare tire, especially if they don’t have true run-flats. Run flats of course come at the expense of higher cost and poor ride quality. My BMW E60 originally had run flats but I switched to conventional tires and a spare tire as there was space to do so.

I’ve also been told by a tire repair guy that the Fix-a-flat stuff is a mess to deal with and make repairing tires harder if not inappropriate.

I would prefer every car have a full size spare ideally. You never know when you’ll have a problem. Donut spares suck but at least can probably get somewhere. Relying on fix-a-flat seems rather dubious. And the alternative of having to tow your car over a flat tire seems absurd.

I suppose tire quality has improved over the years and I assume most people these days have no idea how to change a tire anyways.

The last time I had a flat tire I was in college. I ran over a nail during a snow storm in New Hampshire on a busy highway. There was no way I was changing that tire in that situation but I appreciate the AAA guy risking his life to do so.

 

[Apple fanboy]